Not even a day after this change is implemented, it appears that the Maldivian Government is facing a major backlash as people have started fearing the worst - things such as leaving waste outside due to the price hike in plastic bags are not too far from being a reality.
The decision to charge MVR 2 for every plastic bag was implemented on the 18th of April 2023, in an effort to reduce plastic usage as well as encourage waste management in the Maldives. While sustainability played a major role in the initiative surrounding reducing the usage of plastic bags, following the implementation of the MVR 2 Government fee of plastic bags, many are wondering exactly how much of a role this really plays in sustainability and driving the zero single-use plastic initiative.
One of the biggest reasons why it is so hard to reduce the number of plastic bags being bought just because of the bigger fees is due to the implementation of the waste segregation policy at the start of 2022. With this policy, many households finally started segregating their waste into three different segments, meaning that a majority of the households were using up to 2-3 plastic bags a day in order to get rid of the household waste. While the implementation of the waste segregation policy is definitely a step towards a more sustainable future, where people think twice about the amount of waste they are producing, now, with the hike in the price of plastic bags, it seems like the Maldives is yet again taking step backwards when it comes to actually accomplishing their green initiatives.
Following the price hike, a pack of plastic bags which used to go for MVR 25 are now as high as MVR 220 as every single plastic bag in a bundle is still being charged MVR 2, resulting in plastic bags costing as much as the water bills of some households. Now imagine the dilemma, especially for low-income households when it comes to buying plastic bags and having to segregate waste and bear the cost of it all. It is unreasonable for many as a household with a large number of members could now be spending over MVR 500 just on plastic bags.
Not even a day after this change is implemented, it appears that the Maldivian Government is facing a major backlash as people have started fearing the worst - things such as leaving waste outside due to the price hike in plastic bags are not too far from being a reality. While it might appear as though retailers are unnecessarily charging for every single plastic bag, this was in fact very much cleared up by a Tweet made on the official Twitter handle of MIRA stating that regardless of bundles or separate bags being purchased, each plastic bag still needs to be individually charged the MVR 2.
On top of this, retailers cannot even afford to turn a deaf ear to this new rule as they are to pay these fees to MIRA along with the other taxes at the end of the month.
With the increased prices, now a small stack of plastic bags costs between MVR 220 to MVR 365. The only way to put this into perspective would be to think about the fact that residents are now paying the previous price of a stack of XXL plastic bags for a bundle of the smallest plastic bags!
In response to the backlash, the Environment Minister of Maldives has stated that the Ministry has requested an amendment to the bill to exempt the plastic bag taxes. In her statement she further noted that when the bill was passed, the Parliament brought about some changes as the original Waste Management Act excluded the MVR 2 per bag containing 50 or more plastic bags, however, when the bill was finally passed this was not how the Act was brought about.
While the motive behind the whole reform of the Waste Management Act was to reduce the plastic usage in the Maldives, it appears that this initiative was yet again not thought out as its starting to appear that the Government is implementing these measures at the cost of the citizens.
Though sustainability and a greener future is an extremely important move that needs to be made, there are surely better ways to go about it such as encouraging stores to use alternatives such as paper bags or even sell their own branded bags that shoppers can take with them instead of implementing such heavy charges that will be borne by the citizens of a country who are already paying the staggering costs of day to day life in the Maldives.
